The decision which "massively" changed Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari fortunes in F1 2026

Lewis Hamilton continues to avoid using Ferrari’s Formula 1 simulator, insisting it has benefitted him “massively” during a form revival in 2026. 

Ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix in May, Hamilton confirmed he had changed his approach by ditching Ferrari's simulator, believing it was not always translating accurately to on-track performance and leading him astray.

Hamilton has enjoyed a resurgence this campaign after a hugely difficult debut season with Ferrari in 2025. This term the seven-time world champion has already racked up five podiums and claimed his first win for the Scuderia in Barcelona. 

The 41-year-old Briton revealed ahead of this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix that he is still steering clear of Ferrari’s simulator, and hasn’t used it for two months. 

When asked how much this has helped him over the past few races, Hamilton told media on Thursday at Spa: “Massively. I tried all last year with it, but as I said, when I was at Mercedes for the first few years I didn't use it. As it continued to develop, there was a point where we didn't use it.

“I've been driving simulators since 1997 and they can be really powerful and really useful tools, but they can also mislead you. I found all last year particularly that was the case, and then in previous years when I was at Mercedes it was very similar, so that's why I didn't use it. Since I stopped, my performance has gone much, much better.”

Hamilton is third in the drivers’ championship ahead of Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix, 32 points behind Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli. 

Despite opting against using Ferrari’s simulator, Hamilton stressed in Canada that it remains a powerful tool. 

“The sim is amazing, it’s an amazing space to work in,” he stressed. “It’s the best sim I’ve ever seen and the best group of people – there’s a large team of people I get to work with there, so a day at the sim is actually pretty incredible.

“It is a very powerful tool and something that as a team, we continue to evolve. I think since I’ve been there, I’ve had a lot of input in some of its evolution and they’ve been really responsive and made loads of changes.

“It’s not a tool that I’m saying I’m never going to use again. I think it’s something that, for sure, we’ll continue to utilise, particularly on power deployment. What I’ve done for the last six months is you’d go in after the weekend and you’d work on correlation, but then you go to the next track and it’s slightly off sometimes, so we’ll see how the weekend goes.”